MADRID, 13 (EUROPA PRESS)
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has denounced, citing “reliable” sources, that at least 113 civilians, including 53 women, are being illegally detained in a prison near the Syrian city of Afrin, near the border. northwestern part of the country, and right now under Turkish occupation.
According to sources from the Observatory in the interior of the country, the Rajú prison authorities exercise “all kinds of extortion” against detainees, forced to buy essential goods in prison at six times the market price.
“These detainees remain there without knowing their charges or under weak accusations, such as trying to escape Turkey from the war in this country,” laments the Observatory.
The detainees in these prisons “are suffering from terrible humanitarian conditions, since many of them cannot buy food and drink at their own expense and their relatives who came to visit them inside the prison are forced to pay money for every minute of the visit” , according to the NGO.
The organization finally denounces that this situation is being repeated in at least twenty prisons distributed throughout the area, under the control of Turkey and its allied forces since 2018 as part of an initiative by Ankara against the Kurdish militias in the area, who have clashed to the government for years.
Since then, other organizations such as Amnesty International have denounced that “Turkish forces are giving Syrian armed groups free rein to commit serious human rights abuses against the civilian population.”
For all these reasons, the Observatory asks the United Nations and the European Union to form a committee to monitor the human rights situation in Syrian prisons and calls for pressure to be exerted on the Turkish government as “the occupying power and on its Syrian factions”. to stop violations against civilians in areas under their control, in particular Afrin and its rural areas.”
–
